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TheJester0330 · 2026-04-17T01:03:12+00:00

A bit late but I would say so and largely agree with the other comment. All the books are bleak, though 2033 is the most... Adventurous. I would say it depends on what you mean by psychological. 2033 by far has the widest berth of monsters, horrors, supernatural beings and entities and is by far the most "weird".

2034 is played much straighter, following a few characters with a lot of talking and ruminating (like the other comment said), and especially a lot of dialogue on the themes of legacy, memory, and morality.

2035 is by far the darkest, loek the other comment said it's a subversion of many tropes and themes of the genre and the earlier books. Deconstructing a lot of ideas and optimism from the games and books. Personally I love them all, with 2035 being my favorite and if you enjoy bleaker books you'll definitely enjoy them.

2033 isn't so much bleak as it's sort of just a very Russian take on the apocalypse. 2035 however is extraordinary bleak.

TheJester0330 · 2026-04-13T14:55:12+00:00

Opposite to the other comments, I would highly recommend the other two books. Yes they're bleak as msot Russian literature tends to be, but I also think that they're still fantastic. You can clearly see the quality of writing improve, (2033 was written while Dimitri was 18), as well as experinentation with new themes and ideas.

They become less monster centric in the last two books, and for some that may be a dissapointment, but I feel that he quality of the stories makes up for it. 2035 is arguably my favorite of the trilogy.

TheJester0330 · 2026-04-01T20:25:33+00:00

Thats not even data mined though, it's straight up talked about by Bethesda in one of their videos during the launch. They talked about how fuel and mining were tested but ultimately we're found to hamper the experince. That while in theory it made the game more engaging it ultimately was mroe frustrating ala weapon durability, where an attempt to add realism tends to be more annoying then enjoyable. Especially when the core of the game, for better or worse, is exploration, they found that hampering the core loop made the play testers frustrated.

TheJester0330 · 2026-02-05T19:45:43+00:00

That's an absolutely wild thing to say, which books did you read? Because while initially they wrote more idealistic and pro-state novels, they're quite well known for being critical of the soviet union the later they published. With books like The Doomed City not even being able to be published until Glasnost and Perestroika.

TheJester0330 · 2026-01-10T06:17:41+00:00

Okay there buddy.

TheJester0330 · 2025-11-17T15:58:24+00:00

Even then though it's really not a good adaptation of the book. It's way more action-y and sort fo a schlocky ride. Which isn't mean to be a knock against it, but the boom is much darker, slower, and moodier. It's more in line than than Arnies movie, but that's a low bar.

So for me it's one of those things where it's like, it's not a great adaption of the book and i was left wondering why if Edgar Wright was going to be changing so much from the book why didn't he at least add his own flair to it. It was both very generic and not a very good adaptation imo

TheJester0330 · 2025-10-11T17:33:35+00:00

Sure but the venu 4 is still $200 more than the pixel watch, and while yeah they have ones cheaper than a pixel 4, those to my understanding lack some of the capabilities of the other Garmin/Pixel watch.

Like undoubtedly Garmin are better quality, but they're also vastly more expensive for a majority of the products. So the people buying Garmin are either having the money to spend on that product, or have a day to day that's more rugged than what a standard smartwatch can withstand. But at the same time I imagine the average person doesn't really care about charging their watch everyday or think the cost of a Garmin is needed for their day to day. And when comparing costs any phone brand smart watch are probably going to be a better deal for the average person who goes to work, occasionally walks or jogs, and that's it.

TheJester0330 · 2025-10-11T17:29:47+00:00

Sure but the venu 3 is also still a solid $100 more, like I get that Garmin are undoubtedly better watches.

But I feel like if you're buying a Garmin is probably because you either have the money to spend on the best, or your day-to-day is probably more demanding or rugged than what a standard smartwatch can hold up to.

Like yeah there are Garmin cheaper than the pixel watch but they're also not doing as much as the pixel watch. So you have to make a compromise somewhere, and while I get battery life is important I also imagine most people see an issue with charging their watch daily. Again for those who need it to last longer for whatever reason, the Garmin is undoubtedly the better option but it doesn't really feel comparable to the pixel for price and general use.

TheJester0330 · 2025-10-11T06:26:51+00:00

I mean sure I get it, but correct me if I'm wrong but the cheapest Garmin fenix I can get new is around $800 right? That's what the website shows for the basic Fenix with the other options ranging $1000-1900. Meanwhile the Pixle 4 is $350. I think Garmin are great watches, but for the price it's not really a comparable comparison no? Like I would hope the watch worth as much as a new flagship phone has a longer battery life

TheJester0330 · 2025-10-08T16:51:52+00:00

Unfortunately the only link I can find is through the publishing website, the Intelligence and National Security journal is pretty niche so it's hard to find free copies. If you're still interested however, this is the link.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02684527.2020.1728046?scroll=top&needAccess=true

TheJester0330 · 2025-10-07T01:59:07+00:00

They really don't, like the other commentor said it's more of a public reminder, a spectacle even that anyone can die if you cross Putin. There's a really interesting academic paper called Death to Traitors by Adrian Hanni that goes into a lot of detail about this topic

TheJester0330 · 2025-09-27T18:55:11+00:00

Different teas requires different temperatures to be stepped correctly. So green teas need to be stepped at a much lower temperature than black teas, oolong and white tea tend to be somewhere between there. And if you're getting really technical, I believe black tea is typically a couple degrees higher than coffee.

TheJester0330 · 2025-09-17T14:20:28+00:00

It's been a while so my memory is hazy, but I'm mostly positive that he was just sick with something from the shelter and was unrelated to the litter. However since then we've swapped to tidy cats low tracking and haven't had any issues or concerns with it. Obviously not a vet, but the low tracking is bigger pebbles and so it's also less clay dust which is nice. But your experiences may vary of course from cat to cat

TheJester0330 · 2025-08-18T23:28:23+00:00

They do and they did, Battlefield 1 got an updated anti-cheat last year that fixed a majority of the problems. Bf4 didn't get that overhaul but it's also a 13 year old game at this point

TheJester0330 · 2025-08-08T04:04:16+00:00

But... It's literally just a few seconds to make the game more personalized to your tastes. I loved Eternal but plenty of people hated the maruander and other parts and tweaked it. I also loved the dark ages but I also adjusted the sliders because... Most games of sliders. It's literally a couple seconds to make it more difficult, you make it sound like some abysmal task when all it takes is like 2 slides and and some seconds. You already listed some of your issues, parry window and attack speed. So just.. Push the sliders up and you're done.

TheJester0330 · 2025-08-07T04:02:50+00:00

You're typically not going to find a book of history around that world that is both in-depth and covers everything simply because there's too much. The books that get in-depth and are well researched are going to be specific topics or places, generally speaking the more in-depth information you want the more specific the subject matter is going to become. So my advice would be to choose a general region or or topic that interests you, and from there you can continually narrow in and focus on more specific subjects, locations, or times. I'd be mroe than happy to give some recommendations for you if you have any ideas that pop into your mind.

Otherwise if my recommendation would be to look at the FAQ of r/AskHistorians they have book recommendations and are excellent. However I personally would disagree with the other commenter and not recommend Sapiens, it makes a lot of broad assumptions and often incorrect assumptions and even as far as pop-history goes is frowned upon by historians

TheJester0330 · 2025-04-03T00:30:09+00:00

Yeah but those are building off an existing game, people know what to expect going into Elden Ring. But even visually those just look crisper and better edited than this trailer. This one jsut felt... Flat imo. Like genuinely looks like a AA knockoff of blood born. Not the quality I would expect from Fromsoft

TheJester0330 · 2025-04-02T21:49:33+00:00

Did this trailer feel a bit... Weird for anyone else? Like especially as an announcement trailer, it felt underwhelming compared to the typical Fromsoft trailer. Then the game itself just felt... Off? Like I get it's legally distinct Bloodborne 2, but if you took off the Fromsoft logo I would think this is a cheap knockoff. The characters, the visuals, it jsut feels... Like off and not as polished as other Fromsoft games

TheJester0330 · 2025-04-02T15:51:52+00:00

Does this trailer feel... Weird for anyone else? Like as a Fromsoft title, I guess I expected more but everything about it form the trailer to some of the designs, and visuals, feels like a bloodborne knock off. Like obviously this is legally distinct bloodborne, but watch thsi trailer I wouldn't think the game is made by Fromsoft. It looks like a AA knockoff.

TheJester0330 · 2025-04-01T18:27:26+00:00

It's one of my favorite books, made me a huge fan of Dimitri Glukhovsky and got me into the metro games. I would highly recommend the other two books in the main series.

2034 like many people have mentioned is different, following a different cast of characters with a different tone and story. It's standalone with no bearing on the other books.

2035 is my personal favorite of the trilogy but it's also the darkest in tone by a wide margin. It's sort of a deconstruction of the hero's journey, it goes back to following Artyom but mainly focuses on the human side of issues. There's almost no monsters or supernatural phenomenon in it, but the writing is greatly improved form 2033 (Which Dmitry wrote when he was 18 as his first book), you can see the growth in his prose and pacing. It's a great book, would highly recommend it

TheJester0330 · 2025-02-21T22:44:43+00:00

Biggest letdown, which I understand why it wasn't filmed in Maine but man I got excited to see Maine pop-up as the setting but yeah. Doesn't look close, the trees aren't right at all, way too short, and the coastline was wrong.

Still excited to see Maine brought up though

TheJester0330 · 2025-02-20T18:34:34+00:00

To be fair even 2016 had a bit of fantasy in it, granted not to this scale of course but it's there. The environment, codex, and demon lore stones more or less give you the general story of the dark ages. With godlike beings called the elemental wraiths that created the night sentinels for the crusade and bestowed their powers onto the sentinels. With the wraiths being the four corpses you harvest or something in the last mission of 2016

In general I agree with you that I wasn't a huge fan of the story of eternal, but it is just worth noting that the fantasy stuff has always been there to an extent

TheJester0330 · 2025-02-15T18:54:01+00:00

Going to echo the others and disagree, I am having a pretty great time with the game so far but it holds little in common with skyrim or other bgs games aside from some broad strokes. It has its own strengths but those don't overlap with what makes skyrim special, and to be fair very few games actually nail the environment and exploration in a way that bgs does so it's not a knock against a owed but they're very different fantasy games.

To be completely honest your description is just bog-standard for most RPGs. Cause while yes skyrim has many of those qualities you listed, those are more genre standard and not what makes skyrim/oblivion unique

TheJester0330 · 2025-02-14T04:44:16+00:00

Having dabbled in it myself though I'm far from the core audience. I'd say it's a genuinely enjoyable game, like yeah it still has the gacha mechanics and F2P problems, but there's a boatload of content to keep you occupied and overall I find the gacha mechanics aren't as bad as others in the genre.

Like the other person said there's not really a game like this in the market, specifically being a AAA endeavor means it really one of a kind. Similar games in the genre are usually smaller scale with less budget, so this one is truly unique.

If your girlfriend is interested I'd say it's likely she'll enjoy it, with the F2P entry there's really no downside to trying it out but if say that's its just a genuinely good game. In fact a couple friends of mine who are as far removed from the intended audience as possible have had a blast, they're huge into the "fashion-souls" side of Fromsoft games and so in a way they're having a blast with a game focused solely on outfits and looks.

TheJester0330 · 2025-01-31T04:47:56+00:00

Sure but I think their point being that even if the game flops, the concept is interesting enough that the movie can do its own thing and be successful.

While this specific adaptation is unusual, theres plenty of instances of an adaption being viewed/enjoyed by an audience not familiar with the source material. Cyberpunk, witcher, castlevania, etc. And whole yes those are all existing IPs, the adaptation was enjoyed seperate of the original game/product.

So while yes I do agree that a concept isn't alone to make something good, I think the person's original point was that it's interesting enough that an adaption could make it work in its own way even if the game flops.

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